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Jorge de Montemayor, La Diana. Ed. Juan Montero. Barcelona: Critica, 1996. 495 pages.
Juan Montero's edition of the Diana, with a preliminary study by J. B. Avalle-Arce, is the most recent of five critical editions of Montemayor's novel published since 1990. Montero follows the princeps of Valencia, 1558-1559, because it functioned as an archetype for the many editions to follow (eight were in circulation by 1562), and because he believes that this earliest printing is the most authoritative text in terms of its fidelity to the original intentions of the author.
To strive toward a definitively corrected text, Montero records variants like orthographic inconsistencies and printers' errors by examining three copies of the 1558-1559 impression, by incorporating the corrections of the Milan edition (1561), which possesses emendations made by Montemayor, and by using what he considers plausible modifications from modern editors who follow the princeps. Indexes contain additional errata from other sixteenth-century versions, which Montero says deserve notice. Further, he includes poems that were added to the text, such as four new strophes of the "Canto de Orfeo."
Montero's critical commentary does much to advance our understanding of...